B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, who enraged health-care and other public sector unions by cancelling contracts and legislating nurses back to work in his first mandate, told nurses from across the country Thursday that the solution for problems in the health-care system is not simply spending more money.

Campbell told the annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions in Vancouver that the best way to address problems in the health-care system -- including a pending country-wide nursing shortage -- is to ensure resources are used wisely.

"The challenge is if the only answer for everything is more money, then you're going to run out of resources," Campbell said after his speech.

"What the answer's got to be is: How do we invest the money in the most sensible way? Where do we put our priorities?"

Campbell, who was elected to a third term in May, said his government has made health-care a top priority, devoting 90 per cent of new spending to the health budget.

He said he'll be working with nurses to find better ways to spend that money, including programs to bring new nurses into the profession.

The B.C. premier said the entire country is facing an "incredibly turbulent time," and he specifically pointed to an aging population.

Campbell has recently softened his commitment to keep the provincial deficit at $495 million, but says it's still a goal that will require restraint and, in some cases, cuts.

He'll have to do that while juggling demands from groups like B.C.'s nurses, who say they will be telling the Liberal government to devote more resources to health care when it tables a new budget in September.

The president of the BC Nurses Union, which has long been critical of the Liberal government, said she was looking forward to working with Campbell and his new health minister, Kevin Falcon.

Still, Debra McPherson said she'll be repeating the nurses' long wish-list, which includes more acute and long-term care beds, community support for seniors and patients with chronic diseases, and better working conditions for nurses.

"If history is any teacher, I'm not that optimistic," said McPherson.

"But we're going to continue to push that, because that's where the answers lie."

The February budget called for $1.9 billion in cuts from discretionary spending and some programs -- and Campbell has hinted his government may need to find additional savings.

During his speech, Campbell acknowledged his government's at-times strained relationship with health-care unions, joking that some might find it difficult to believe he was sharing the stage with both McPherson and Linda Silas, the president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions.

Campbell's first term in office included an attempt to use legislation to impose contracts on doctors, nurses and hospital workers, among other public sector workers.

Earlier this year, the Liberal government avoided a potential labour showdown with nurses by extending their contracts by two years, including a six-per cent pay increase, despite suggesting in the budget that some public-sector wages might be frozen.

The Liberal government is currently battling with another health union.

The province's paramedics are on strike in a dispute largely focusing on wages, although essential-services legislation has prevented the ambulance workers from walking off the job.

Negotiations to end that two-month-old dispute resume this week.